Tag Archives: our supporters

This year Reality Gives are strapping on our trainers, hitting the tarmac and gearing up for the Mumbai Marathon 2015, and we want you to join us!

Established in 2004 the Mumbai Marathon is the largest marathon in Asia and amongst the top 10 in the world (it’s also the largest mass participation event in Asia) with 40,000 participating in the event last year.

The Mumbai Marathon 2015 will take place on Sunday 18th January 2015 and features three main events; the Full Marathon (42km), Half Marathon (21km) and Dream Run (6km).

As well as being an incredible sporting occasion, the event also represents a great way to raise funds with last year seeing Rs.179,000,000 raised for 232 NGOs. As an officially recognised NGO participating in the event we are able to support schools, corporates and individuals in entering the race and raising funds for us. Reality Gives wants YOU.

Nieck has been our first-ever intern with Reality Tours & Travel. Despite some serious health issues he managed to interview 74 Dharavi residents about their perception of slum tours in their communities. His thesis will still take some more months so we will need to wait for an overview of his results. But he has been so kind to write about his personal experience for our blog:

Back in the Netherlands as I transcribe interviews and read through all of the information I have gathered, it makes me think a lot about what I have experienced. With help of three fantastic guides, I was able to have a very personal conversation with the people of Dharavi. Their stories have touched me, surprised me and have also caused me to reflect upon our own safe, comfortable and judgmental Western lives.

My research had to do with how the Dharavi community members feel about the tourists that Reality Tours Travel brings into their community. After carring out in-depth interviews with 74 Dharavi community members, I can confidently say that many are happy to see tourists. A lot of interviewees have summed this up in saying, “They have come from so far to see how we work and live. I’m happy for that”. On the other hand, the reality is that these people are too busy with their work and daily routine to be too concerned about our intentions. I’ve come to realise that as long as Reality operates its business with good intentions and the tourists respect their culture and the living condition of the people, it seems, according to those I interviewed, to be perfectly acceptable for the community.

Quite a few interviewees mentioned that “I think the company should help the community more”. After telling them about the company’s relationship with Reality Gives, literally all interviewees showed nothing but respect and gratefulness for the organisation’s intentions and efforts. I would recommend the Reality Group to distinguish themselves more by promoting their efforts more within the community, as many respondents were unaware of the organisation’s initiatives.

I firmly believe in the positive effects Reality Tours Travel and Reality Gives can have on this community and so I wish them all the best with their future efforts. They are the perfect example that tourism can also leave a positive footprint and I was happy to be a part of that during my five months in Mumbai.

Thank you Nieck for your hard work and great input. We will miss you here in Mumbai!

In the past year, thanks to the generosity of individuals, clubs and counties, Project Front Foot and the dedicated founder Vic Mills have been able to transport 350 kilos of donated clothing and kit to Mumbai; a huge undertaking that would not have been possible without the continued support of British Airways.

After providing kit to our U14 and U18 squads, the surplus was placed with orphanages and NGOs in Mumbai and residential schools around Maharashtra.

To our established coaching team, Bhavana and Harshad, we were able to add the services of Pete Woolcock a sports graduate from Liverpool University who assisted Bhavana and Harshad in implementing new coaching drills and was on hand to set up and run PFF’s first ever fitness tests. Asim, Reality Gives Community Centre manager remained the conduit between the kids, coaches and our sister NGO Reality Gives.

In today’s blog I would like to introduce myself to you. My name is Nieck Slikker, I’m a 26 year old student at Stenden University (city of Leeuwarden) in the Netherlands. As of the 8th of June, I am the new addition to the Reality team here in Mumbai, although it will be for a short period of 4 months. I am what they would call ‘the intern’. Other titles I carry are ‘Chief Coffee Distributor’, ‘Senior Executive of Interior Cleaning’ and ‘Head Greeter’. I’m joking of course! The main task I have throughout these 4 months, is to conduct my research for my dissertation. After this I will be finishing up my thesis. In other words, this internship is my final placement which concludes my BBA and Tourism Management.

Today we would like to tell you the stories of some incredible people who choose to support Reality Gives by raising funds and awareness for our projects . These are the stories of the Reality Gives Ambassadors 2013:

Therese and Andreas Uhrner and kids visit the cause they fundraised for. The Swedish family contacted us in early January with the idea to fundraise for a social cause in Mumbai which they could visit when they visit India in February. As the mother works with disabled adults in Sweden they were especially interested in the CORP (Community Outreach Program) Centre for disabled children in Dharavi.